Originally posted April 24th, 2011
By Michael Konik
As Thomas Jefferson did in the 1700s, let us set aside the Bible’s confounding melange of mythic mysticism, foggy mumbo-jumbo and confusing contradictions and, instead, let us concentrate on the principles that a dangerous Jew from ancient Nazareth was willing to die for. Let us behave less like the charlatans who organize their businesses around lost souls and more like Mr. Christ himself. Let us put the Christ back in Christianity.
Love they brother. Take care of each other. Recognize the divine spirit in the humblest receptacle.
Originally posted December 19th, 2010
By Michael Konik
Justice has been done! The U.S. Military’s pernicious ongoing discrimination against heterosexuals has been outlawed.
Now it’s all out in the open. Now straight people won’t be the only (majority) group permitted to suffer unimaginable indignities, grievous disfigurement and injuries, and painful death while protecting the business interests of those richer than they. Now straight people won’t be the only victims of propaganda that makes war seem like a really cool video game. With the repeal of the noxious “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, now gays too may be conned into believing they are heroes for sacrificing their lives in overseas police actions that provide security for no one but arms manufacturers, oil producers, and corrupt tribal politicians.
Some of our more courageous Christian brothers and sisters — like the ones brave enough to stand up for God at military funerals, reminding the parents of slain children . . . → Read More: Gays in the Military
Originally posted November 20th, 2010
By Michael Konik
With the help of advanced telescopic technology, astronomers are now able to see into the past more deeply than ever before. What they’re finding, according to the capsule reports in the newspaper, is a universe that is larger and more crowded with Earth-like objects than previously understood. If you believe in old-fashioned notions like mathematics, it’s a numeric certainty that what’s going on here, on the the third orbiter from our particular Sun, is happening someplace else, too.
God is far busier than we previously imagined, with many more souls — and gasses, and asteroids, and black holes — to look after than our human brains can comprehend. Yet one thing is certain, according to the frequent declarations one finds on email signatures, Facebook posts, and otherwise polite conversation: “God is good!”
We’re also frequently reminded by certain impolite Christians that accepting Jesus Christ as one’s savior . . . → Read More: The God Enigma
Originally posted July 11th, 2010
By Michael Konik
When Julia Gillard became Australia’s first female prime minister last week she quickly earned international headlines (and a congratulatory call from President Obama). Being a woman was the easy part. Gillard overcame an obstacle far more troublesome than her gender: She doesn’t believe in God.
“No, I don’t,” she told an interviewer at Australia’s national radio, ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp.) who asked her directly if she believed in God. “I’m not a religious person.”
“I was brought up in the Baptist Church, but during my adult life I’ve, you know, found a different path. I’m of course a great respecter of religious beliefs, but they’re not my beliefs.”
Acccording to archived news reports, Gillard was a studious Christian as a child, winning prizes for catechism lessons and for memorizing Bible verses. But, she noted, “I’ve made decisions in my adult life about my own views.” The new . . . → Read More: Australia Going to Hell
Originally posted April 3rd, 2010
By Michael Konik
Joe is a human being.
Joe is unsure if he is homoseuxal or heterosexual. But like most human beings, he has urges that involve activities other than procreation.
Rather than figure out who he is or what he likes, Joe decides to sublimate his confusing desires, announcing to the world that he is no longer interested in boys or girls. Instead, he is focusing all his love on a long-dead mystic whose radical ideas changed the world.
Joe’s work brings him in contact with many vulnerable and subservient children.
Joe’s “marriage” to the dead mystic, while spiritually fulfliing, does not address the persistent tingling he feels in his scrotum whenever he’s around vulnerable and subservient children.
Joe attempts to strengthen his marriage, reminding himself how much he loves his physically absent friend, and how much he is loved in return, even though that love does not take . . . → Read More: A Fun Little Easter Parable
Originally posted August 16th, 2009
By Michael Konik
You may have noticed that people like to have sex, including countless youngsters whose testosterone levels dramatically exceed their intelligence. Everybody’s conception of permissible activity varies somewhat, based on controlling factors that most of us don’t bother to examine. But whether or not you approve of pre-marital sex, or marital sex, or post-marital sex, whether you think people ought to be having more sex or less, the act of copulation is as inevitable and eternal as the sunrise.
Attempting to dissuade or prevent human beings from engaging in one of life’s enduring pleasures is as futile and nonsensical as trying to eliminate the tides. Weird organizations devoted to chastity may certainly try their best to make lustful humans into self-abnegating monks, but they’re fighting millions of years of genetic imperatives, not to mention millions of marketing and popular culture images reinforcing the idea that getting laid is . . . → Read More: The Immorality of Discouraging Contraception
Originally posted July 11th, 2009
By Michael Konik
Anyone who enjoyed a high school or college infatuation with the ideas contained in the popular novels of Ayn Rand knows that characters like John Galt and Howard Roark represent all that is good about capitalism. Their intelligence, determination, and ethics made them heroes — heroes of acquisitiveness passed off as heroes of innovation and progress. Rand, aside from being a master of the potboiler, was one of capitalism’s great apologists, a stirring defender of the indefensible, who masterfully illustrated some of our most treasured nostrums: free markets and free men make the world better for everyone; without an incentive to achieve, everything gets stuck in the socialist muck; it’s a fair game that anyone can play.
How persuasive is she? After devouring her collected works, most people conclude that the only logical, efficient way to organize a society is around the premise of greed. Forget all . . . → Read More: The Morality of Greed
Originally posted March 1st, 2009
By Michael Konik
On a hot Saturday night in the provinces, two handsome young lovers made their nuptial vows at a Christian church in front of family and friends, as is the custom. But at this wedding, unlike every other I’ve attended, the preacher harangued and scolded and pretended to cry, careful, it seemed, to inject the proceedings with a ponderous solemnity befitting a funeral or a disciplinary hearing. No one smiled; not the bridesmaids in their gowns and makeup, not the groomsmen, not the relatives, not the choir, and, heartbreakingly, not the bride and groom. Joy, for reasons I could not grasp, had been tacitly banished, relegated to less important occasions that didn’t involve pledges of love and loyalty. Naked, unabashed happiness — unreliable and dynamic, and therefore untrustworthy — was not the point of a wedding. At least not this one.
I usually cry at weddings, overwhelmed by . . . → Read More: Joy and Its Absence
Originally posted December 2nd, 2008
By Michael Konik
If there were an easy answer to endemic poverty, the kindest among us would surely have already implented it. There’s no simple solution. But one thing is obvious — at least to an outsider: desperately poor people must stop having desperately poor children, most of whom cannot be fed, educated, and cared for properly.
The Filipinos have a word, “labis.” It means, more or less, “too much.” In the Philippines and countless other “developing countries,” the population is “labis,” and something must be done. The problem is the dominant religion is Catholicism, which views every sex act that results in procreation as a blessing, not an economic curse. Plus, the culture encourages respect and reverence for elders, and many poor folks have multiple children as a long-term investment, believing that their offspring will one day provide for them — and everyone else in the constantly growing extended . . . → Read More: Labis: “Too Much”
Originally posted November 15th, 2008
By Michael Konik
This weekend, a number of dear friends, some straight, some gay, will be picketing in front of Los Angeles City Hall, venting their anger at an empty building. The protesters are furious about the passage of Proposition 8, which amends the California Constitution to permit holy matrimony solely between a man and a woman. Prop 8 is a baleful, mean-spirited blow to egalitarianism, and I voted against it, since I believe that homosexuals ought to have the opportunity to be as miserable as most heterosexuals.
California is allegedly the most progressive, reliably liberal state in the country. That voters here have approved government-sanctioned discrimination is both disheartening and puzzling — at least until one investigates the fiduciary forces supporting Prop 8, which attracted $74 million in political contributions. One of the main backers of the measure was the Church of Latter Day Saints, otherwise known as Mormons, . . . → Read More: Getting it Wrong on Prop 8
We're really sorry about our most recent trading loss. People will say we require more oversight, and, in this case, maybe they're right. It shouldn't have happened, and we'll take steps to make sure it doesn't happen for a third time.
The $4,000 or so ($4,882) of your money that we failed to bring back from our annual company trip to Hollywood Park Racetrack and Casino will in... Read More-->
If you’re reading this essay on MichaelKonik.com, you know that this is a reliable place to find “me,” the me who shares his ideas with the world, whether or not any part of the world is interested. This is where I unilaterally invade my privacy, allowing strangers...
North Korea is launching rockets, Syria is slaughtering its citizens, and the Filipino community is organizing a massive get-out-the-vote campaign for a crucial election (not for something boring and unimportant like a public office but a cause that’s got folks passionately engaged: the American Idol finals). So...
Sometimes our chaotic, unknowable, seemingly random Universe arranges itself with perfect symmetry. In these moments of bracing clarity, authored by a Creator (in whatever guise or nomenclature you prefer) whose sense of irony is matched only by her/his/its sense of wicked humor, our innate foolishness and learned...
Poet Robert Pinsky. Pianist Laurence Hobgood. Text, music, and the moment -- what we hear on the new POEMJAZZ recording is two giant artists making something greater than the sum of its parts. While Pinsky recites his lovely words with his unlovely (but weirdly attractive) voice, Hobgood, the longtime arranger and accompanist [...]
